Don't Ever Feel Lonely

Chapter 1 – Charge

By Threshie

AN: Death Note and its cast of interesting characters belongs to Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, not me. This is a work of fanfiction.

This fic is set in an Alternate-Universe in which Mello and Matt are college students living on-campus in a dorm as roommates. The focus of the story isn't really college or classes, though, so don't run away if a "student" story sounds boring to you! :)

My writing style is very immediate, so this just jumps right into the story—please enjoy chapter 1!

The wreckage was just around a turn in the road.

As Matt swerved his motorcycle around the bend, the twisted metal and smoke almost seemed to materialize in front of him. Cars—two of them, one red and one's color unseen because it was laying belly-up on the pavement.

"Holy--!" The redhead quickly turned into a sideways skid, jamming down the brake. Mello skidded his bike to a stop, too, joining him in startled swearing in the process.

"An accident!" The blonde climbed off of his motorcycle almost before it had come to a stop, shading his eyes and scanning the wreckage quickly. This's a pretty bad wreck, Matt thought, hopping off of his bike as well and tipping the goggles he wore up onto his forehead so that he could see better. He almost wished that he hadn't; thinking of people being inside of the warped remains of the vehicles was upsetting. Nobody could've lived through this... If there were any survivors, they wouldn't be alive for long without help...

"C'mon," the redhead said shortly, jogging toward the two cars. If there's anybody inside, we've gotta get them out!

"Matt, nobody could live through this," Mello called after him grimly, unknowingly echoing Matt thoughts from a moment ago. Nonetheless, the redhead heard the slapping of his friend's boots on the pavement as he followed.

The cars were both mangled almost beyond recognition; the red one was so scraped that half of the paint was gone, revealing battered streaks of silvery metal beneath. The redhead quickly looked into the seating area, noting out of the corner of his eye that Mello was doing the same with the overturned one.

"...Nobody in here is alive," the blonde said heavily after a moment, standing; he'd been kneeling to see inside. Matt wasn't listening, though—a slight movement down between the seats had caught his attention. He leaned into the shattered side window, quickly spotting a small bloodied form lying on the floor in front of the back seat. The person was very pale, with even paler hair—it was white, in fact. Assuming that a small white-haired person was probably elderly, Matt snagged one of the person's wrists as gently as he could while still being quick and felt for a pulse.

The survivor's heartbeat was very weak.

"Call 911—I found somebody alive!" He shouted to Mello, tugging the survivor's arm to drag them closer to him. The door's too smashed to open—I'll have to drag them out this window. Hooking his arms beneath the white-haired person's arms, he hauled them out the window. It wasn't difficult; they were rather lightweight. Stumbling back from the cars to the motorcycles, which he hoped was safely out of distance should the wreckage decide to explode, Matt lay the survivor on their back, sitting up to get a good look at them for the first time.

Blackness.

Large black eyes were staring at him intently.

Now that Matt could see his face, he saw that the survivor wasn't elderly at all. It was a young boy—14 years old, tops, despite his ivory hair—and he was very much awake. He's hurt pretty bad, the redhead thought, shaken, as he looked down and saw that the boy's clothes were drenched in blood. His face was battered, a large scrape across one side of it having apparently spilled blood into his eyes, because the whites were reddish, too. His clothes looked like they were once a set of white pajamas...now they were more red than white, several large gashes torn through the torso and legs.

Nonetheless, evenly, he stared.

"H-hang on, kid," Matt said, trying and failing to hide the shock in his voice. He's gonna die—there's blood everywhere! I-I can't do anything for him! Despite this logic, he pressed both palms over the largest injury, a gash in the smaller boy's shoulder, to try and slow the bleeding. The boy gave a tiny gasp of pain, shuddering.

"W-who...are you...?" He asked, so faintly that Matt almost didn't hear him.

"Matt," the redhead answered absently, brows furrowing. He felt panicked, even though he wasn't in any danger himself. The boy in front of him, though...he was obviously dying. Matt could almost feel the life draining out of his broken body and pooling in crimson on the pavement. What do you say to somebody who's dying? D-do you say anything at all...?

The boy must have been in shock; he actually smiled at the hurried introduction. It was a childish smile, a little curve of the lips that looked so sweet and innocent that it stunned Matt into silence when he had been about to say something more. He...this poor kid, he thought heavily. I-I can't even imagine what kind of pain he's in, and he's being so calm about it...he's braver than any adult I know.

Behind him, he could hear Mello talking, giving traffic directions. He glanced and saw that the blonde was talking on his cellphone, staring over at the wreckage grimly.

"...Yeah, two cars. They're both totalled, but we pulled a kid out of them who's still alive." He called 911—good, an ambulance can...

"Matt..." He turned quickly at the sound of the boy's voice, letting the thought trail off unfinished. His dark eyes looked duller, now.

Dying.

He was mumbling something too softly to hear. It only took a second's hesitation before Matt stopped the futile attempts to slow the bleeding, leaning down close to hear what he was saying. He's gonna die—do you wanna waste his last few breaths putting on a show we both know is fake, or make sure that his last words are heard by somebody?

He leaned down until his cheek was mere inches away from the boy's pale features, and whispered, "Wh-what'd you say?" He's dying—he's just a kid! Kids shouldn't die! Yet he was. Matt's mind was reeling with the helpless feeling that this fact filled him with. He hadn't ever considered himself a particularly kind person, but when he saw people in trouble he always tried to help...and now, when somebody needed help the most, he was powerless to do anything for him.

If he could've gone back in time and switched his major from computer programming to medical school just to be prepared for this one incident, he would've done it in a heartbeat.

The helplessness was overwhelming, and yet it must have been nothing compared to what the white-haired boy was going through... Stop whining when you're gonna come out of it fine, he bereted himself, feeling tears of frustration welling in his eyes. Swallowing hard, he took one of the boy's small hands in his, squeezed it gently. He's gotta be scared—does he think it's not okay to show it?

"D..." The boy drew a slow, ragged breath, gripping Matt's hand very weakly back. The pressure barely changed at all. "Don't...ever...f-feel lonely."

"What?" Matt sat up a little, turning his head to see the boy's expression...and froze. The dark eyes had lost their spark; they gazed flatly up into the sky, empty and cold.

He had died without even hearing Matt's response.

Something indescribible gripped Matt suddenly. It felt like electricity, but different, too—hot, burning hot. The pale little hand still held in his suddenly felt cold by comparison. Gasping, the redhead doubled over, dropping the boy's hand to clutch at his stomach. Wh-what's....happening...? The shock was stronger now, washing in jolting waves through his limbs. It went out to his fingertips and toes then burned its way back to the center of his torso in a rapid, fluttering rhythm, like some sadistic, off-kilter heartbeat.

Don't ever feel lonely. The boy's last words rang in his mind as his vision blurred and all sounds faded out to numbing silence. Matt, you will never feel lonely...because now I am here with you.

Clicking the phone closed, Mello shoved it into his pocket and turned away from the wreckage toward Matt and the small person he'd pulled out of the car. He knew that something was wrong, though, when he saw that his roommate was kneeling on the ground beside the white-haired survivor, hugging himself tightly and bowing his head. I don't like this... He hurried over to the redhead's side, suspecting what had happened even before he caught sight of the "survivor"'s empty eyes.

He hadn't made it.

Dammit! Matt... Mello looked down at his friend, who hadn't moved from his curled-up position. The blonde boy was tough enough to maintain his composure in such a situation, but his friend was more open, more gentle; when faced with things like death, he didn't hide anything if it affected him. Sometimes Mello wished he could do the same...

Placing a gloved hand onto the redhead's shoulder, he said, "Matt...let's go."

"Mell," Matt whispered, looking up at him as if he'd materialized there. There was an unsettling kind of panic in his wide blue eyes; he looked disturbed, so disturbed that he was practically staring through Mello instead of at him. The kid's dead; the best thing we can do is to go home and forget this thing ever happened, the blonde decided grimly.

"There was nothing you could do, Matt," he said quietly, looking down at the white-haired boy. He was only a kid... Shaking his head, he willed the thoughts away; thinking about it now wouldn't help anything, and Matt needed to be taken away from here. Reaching down, he grabbed one of the redhead's bloodied hands and tugged him gently to his feet. "C'mon, Matt, if we stay here the police'll question us for hours. We tried to help, but it was too late...let's go home now."

"Y-yeah..." Matt examined the hand that Mello wasn't holding shakily, brows furrowed in an almost pained expression. "Mell...s-something...something weird just happened..."

"Tell me back at the dorm," the blonde said pointedly, leading him over to his bike. A bit worriedly, he paused, turning to Matt and looking at him critically. "Think you can ride your bike right now?" Are you going to be okay? You look really freaked out...

Matt nodded immediately, glancing back at the body of the boy one more time.

"Yeah...y-yeah, I'm good. I'm okay." His weak tone wasn't very convincing...

Despite this, he climbed onto the motorcycle and revved the engine. There wasn't time to argue too much; the police and an ambulance were on the way thanks to Mello's phone call. Hopping onto his bike as well, the blonde fired up the engine and sped off. What a depressing way to end a day!

--End Chapter 1

AN: And the plot's away...! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter; more to come soon! :)

Thanks for reading! Before you take off, feel free to read the Akugi section. Akugis are outtake-style parodies of various lines/scenes in the chapter they belong to. They are intended to be funny, but I have a kind of cheesy sense of humor, so...yeah, be forewarned. XD; Er, enjoy? LOL.

See you next chapter!

-Threshie

DEFL Akugi! Volume 1

Akugi #1

Narrator: Cars—two of them, one red and one's color unseen because it was laying belly-up on the pavement.

Matt: "Holy--!" (Skids to stop) "Some sicko broke up their Hotwheels toys and left 'em out here!" (Gets off bike and comes over to poke cars, which are really, really tiny and arranged in a wreck-style formation)

Near: (Hiding behind bush to watch reactions of passersby when they find his arranged "wreck") ^^

Akugi #2

Matt: "H-hang on, kid." He's gonna die—there's blood everywhere! I-I can't do anything for him!

Near: (Sweatdrop) "You are a...v-very bad liar." ;

Akugi #3

Matt: (Leans down to hear) "Wh-what'd you say?"

Near: "D...don't ever...ride without a seatbelt." (Points at car) "That's what I did." x.x;

Matt: (Sweatdrop) "Uh....I ride a motorcycle. They don't HAVE seatbelts..."

Akugi #4

Mello: "Think you can ride your bike right now?"

Matt: (Nods) "Nope."

Mello: "...Which is it?"

Matt: "Sure!" (Shakes head)

Mello: (Twitch) "You're TRYING to waste time, aren't you?!"

Matt: (Nods) "No, not at all."